These Three Cities Spent $70 Million on Stadiums to Lure Minor League Baseball Teams. They All Struck Out: New at Reason

It was a perfect day for baseball—warm but not too hot, with a light breeze blowing, and clouds blocking out the June sun—when Gov. Christie Whitman, ball in hand, announced that a new stadium was exactly what Camden needed to turn the corner.

“This ballpark will be another step in giving this city, which has seen its share of tough times, a second chance,” announced the then-governor of New Jersey, while standing in the shadow of the mighty Ben Franklin Bridge along the banks of the Delaware River.

“I’m very pleased to be here for the groundbreaking of another stadium in what has become a long list of outstanding baseball parks across our state.”

Under Whitman’s watch, New Jersey embarked on an unprecedented minor league baseball stadium building spree, as the state tried to turn itself into a hotbed for minor league baseball. From 1994 through 2001, seven new minor league teams took root in the state. Some were new franchises, while others relocated from out-of-state. Some played in leagues directly affiliated with Major League Baseball, while others played in independent leagues outside the MLB farm system. All of them played in brand new stadiums largely—and in some cases entirely—funded with public money.

The state’s riskiest bets were placed on three franchises in the fledgling Atlantic League. Teams in Atlantic City, Newark, and Camden were gifted new stadiums with generous leases, built on dreams about turning those struggling cities into attractive destinations for visitors and families. But for all the talk of economic growth, second chances, and civic revitalization at the time, the two decades since have provided a stark lesson: baseball stadiums are not the key to rebuilding struggling American cities.

Today, all three Atlantic League teams are long gone. Stadiums that cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars apiece sit empty or have been torn down in pursuit of what civic officials see as the next sure thing in economic development—all while the bonds used to build them are still being paid off. The Atlantic League never turned New Jersey’s struggling cities into baseball Meccas, but it continues seeking public largesse elsewhere. Politicians have yet to learn the lesson, writes Eric Boehm.

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